Lord Weidenfeld's fund pledges £100k to child refugees who come to Britain alone
JEWISH peer Lord Weidenfeld’s fund to save Christians from the Middle East has pledged £100,000 to support unaccompanied child refugees brought to Britain.
Lord Weidenfeld’s fund to save Christians from the Middle East has pledged £100,000
Charity chief Lord Woolf says the aid is in memory of the late Lord Weidenfeld, who established the fund to repay what he described as a “debt of gratitude” to the Plymouth Brethren who saved him from the Nazis just before the Second World War.
The offer to David Cameron comes days after the PM said Britain would accept thousands of child refugees from camps on the Continent to quell revolt by backbenchers.
The Government declined to give exact figures but Home Office minister James Brokenshire told Tory MPs privately it was likely to be more than 3,000.
Help will only be extended to children in camps in France, Italy and Greece before the European Union and Turkey agreed to resettle any migrants arriving from Syria and Libya on March 20.
Lord Weidenfeld responded to the refugee crisis last year by setting up and funding the Weidenfeld Fund
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Lord Woolf said Lord Weidenfeld would have approved wholeheartedly of the “principled decision” to accept child refugees.
He wrote: “Lord Weidenfeld responded to the refugee crisis last year by setting up and funding the Weidenfeld Fund, for members of the Jewish community and others, to help endangered Christians in the Middle East.
“He did this in part as a debt of gratitude to the Christian family who provided him with a home and helped him find a job at the BBC when he arrived in London in 1938 as a refugee from Nazi occupied Vienna.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Lord Wolf said Lord Weidenfeld would have approved wholehearted
“The family also helped save his parents from almost certain death in Auschwitz by sponsoring their visa to follow him to London.
The offer comes days after the PM said Britain would accept thousands of child refu
The plight of Syrian refugees born in Lebanon and who could become stateless
“The Weidenfeld Fund is supported by prominent members of the Jewish community, as well as other donors, and during the past 12 months we have been helping Christians find places of safety in European countries.
“It is our strong hope that the Fund’s contribution will demonstrate leadership and spur others.”
The Weidenfeld Fund is supported by prominent members of the Jewish community
Before Lord Weidenfeld died last year he launched a rescue mission of up to 2,000 Christian families from Syria and Iraq.
Former child refugee Lord Dubs originally had his amendment to the immigration bill that would have seen the UK accept 3,000 child refugees rejected in a Commons vote last month.